New Challenges of Peacekeeping and the European Union’s Role in Multilateral Crisis Management

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is an European instrument supporting cooperation among researchers across Europe (seminars, conferences, researchers exchange program, organisation of Training-Schools)

As was done in 2011, the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) will organise a new Summer School entitled “The EU in the World: Towards Global Partnerships in Peace Operations”. The workshop is targeted to PhD candidates and post-doctoral fellows working on EU security policy, with a focus on inter-institutional cooperation and exit strategies in the broad field of crisis management. The workshop will take place at the premises of the GCSP in Geneva at the end of September 2012. PhD candidates and post-doctoral fellows (e.g. in the field of political science and international relations) are encouraged to apply.

The Action Members has met in Rome onMarch 8th, 2012 in the framework of an International Conference organised by Archivio Disarmo, La Sapienza University (Rome) and the High Center for Defence Studies (Italian Defence Ministry). This initiative has been organised with the aim to promote exchanges between the military and researchers participating to the Action. The Conference has therefore focused on the field impacts of peace missions. The following day, March 9th, an MC has been organised

In the afternoon the Management Committee has elected Raquel Freire and Federico Santopinto Chair and vice-Chair of the Action. The program of the Action has also been discussed. On the menu: an International Conference in Rome organised with the Italian army, another Training-School in Geneva, several STSMs, a part of which coordinated toward a common topic, and the final Conference in Vienna, presenting the outputs of the Action.

The 30 of November 2011 a seminar and a Management Committee (MC) have been organised at the Technical University of Lisbon. During the seminar, in the morning, three external speakers from the UN and NATO made a speech on their field experience on peace-keeping missions and crisis management. The relation between their organisations and the EU was at the heart of their analysis.

There has never been any dearth of literature on the European Union and its external actions. How is it possible to make an informed choice from the thousands of pages displayed on the web on this topic? Published in the framework of the COST Action IS0805, the goal of this book is to guide the reader through this inextricable jungle towards quality publications. The authors also succeed in the rare feat of not succumbing to customary but egregious Anglophile sectarianism. As well as the admittedly majority quota of English-speaking documentation, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and Finnish articles are also included. The only criteria guiding this choice were quality and the pertinence of the subject.